Considering the Legacy and the Music of John Lennon

Out of all the John Lennon remembrances I have read this year, I found Robert Hilburn’s the most touching (“Imagine if He’d Lived,” Dec. 6).

Whereas most tributes simply choose to recite this man’s incredible positive contribution and influence on our society, Hilburn gave us rare glimpses into the simple and extremely likable man behind the genius. The final sentence had me in tears.

JASON WESTFIELD

Santa Monica

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Thank you, Robert Hilburn, for your remembrance of John Lennon. And especially for your restraint in declining to use the name of the guy who murdered him. May all journalists learn from your example.

JOEY CRAWFORD

Los Angeles

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Hilburn’s remembrance of John Lennon truly takes the cake. One of the most remarkable careers in music history cut short, and his most prescient comment is, “I’d like to give him a hug”?

Embarrassing. Pitiful.

CHRISTOPHER MEINDL

Los Angeles

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Whilst working on “Pussy Cats” in L.A. with Harry Nilsson, John Lennon told me personally that he had a great revulsion for all music critics. Since he isn’t here to set the record straight, I should disabuse Hilburn of any further desire to hug this late, lamented iconoclast.

VAN DYKE PARKS

Encino

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Imagine there’s a heaven . . . it’s easy if you’re there.

CHRIS MATHIS

Pasadena

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I long for the day when dead pop stars aren’t turned into beacons of insight, as Hilburn attempted to do with John Lennon. Lennon was so smart? How smart can you be and marry Yoko Ono? How smart can you be when you lead a generation down a garden path of drug addiction?

It’s time the baby boomers grew up and stopped worshiping their fallen gods, including Lennon. I never met him, but I have interacted with a swirl of people who knew him well, and I think if he were around he’d say the same thing.

SKIP PRESS

Burbank

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As a musician, I have respect for Lennon’s accomplishments both with the Beatles and as a solo artist. However, because of Lennon’s tragic death, he has become a martyr. It seems fashionable to exaggerate the contributions of Lennon to music and at the same time ignore or play down the accomplishments of Paul McCartney. After all, it was McCartney that authored such classics as “Yesterday,” “Here, There and Everywhere,” “Let It Be,” “Hey Jude,” “Michelle,” “The Long & Winding Road,” plus many others.

Even up to the death of Lennon, McCartney had a far more successful solo career. It raises the question: Who was the real genius behind the Beatles? My answer is Paul McCartney.

ROBERT J. FLYNN

Thousand Oaks

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Just when I thought it was safe to watch a network movie again, I happened to tune in to NBC’s “In His Life: The John Lennon Story” (“Beatles Saga ‘In His Life’ Plows Some New Ground,” by Steve Hochman, Dec. 2). Boy, what a mistake that was!

If you’re going to make a movie about one of the most popular pop icons of the 20th century, make sure you know more about the subject matter than the fans do. Plus, I was hoping to, at the very least, hear some cool Beatle tunes. Wrong! With the exception of “She Loves You,” all they seemed to play were lame Beatles cover tunes, and none of that was recorded by the Beatles; they were all rerecorded for the movie (and not very convincingly at that). And the casting . . . well, let’s just say none of the TV Beatles resembled the real deal.

WILL RAY

Burbank

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John Lennon’s mother, Julia, was not killed by a truck, as Steve Hochman alleges and as “In His Life” indicates, but by a car driven by an off-duty police officer. In the documentary “Imagine,” John states that this man was drunk at the time. This incident may explain the attitude toward people in authority that he displayed from time to time throughout his adult life.

Certainly, in conversation with him on the island of Barbados in the late ‘60s when he was on a vacation with George and Ringo, after sympathizing with him on losing his mother tragically as I myself had done at a very early age, his reply--which I remember vividly--was interesting: “I don’t know what hurt me more, losing her or the way it happened.”

ROBIN GREGG

Hollywood